FAUSTGounod

EuroArts 2097038

2 DVDs

Another production that hit
the headlines for the wrong
reasons was Der Rosenkavalier
at Glyndebourne in 2014,
when several critics were
taken to task for criticising the
appearance of mezzo soprano
Tara Erraught, who had been
unflatteringly costumed. Alas,
lightning does strike twice as
the poor young woman sports
a beard and clerk’s bands as
Siébel in Reinhard von der
Thannen’s production of
Faust, filmed at Salzburg last
year. (Don’t shoot me, I’m
just the messenger.) Happily,
her whiskers don’t encumber
her acting or her vocal
performance. Quite what von
der Thannen’s production is
about I’m not sure. It’s very
white, very modern, and pretty
empty apart from an army
of Pierrots. The word ‘Rien’
is lowered at beginning and
end, so I think we can guess
that there’s a strong sense of
nihilism at play here. It is,
however, curiously compulsive
to watch. Piotr Beczala is a
tasteful Faust, Ildar Abrazakov
a fluent Méphistofeles and
Alexey Markov a large-scale
Valentin. Best of all is Maria
Agresta, whose Marguerite is
fresh, cleanly sung, and has the
vocal chops to survive Act V
intact. Aléjo Perez conducts a
confident and appropriately
grand reading of the score.